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Earning My Ears

Hi I have had a letter today from my UK travel agent which states the following:

As you may be aware, the Old Port Royale shopping and dining venues at the Resort are currently under
refurbishment. This construction was originally scheduled to be completed prior to your arrival, however,
Disney have advised us that this has been extended and now due for completion at the end of 2018. During
this time, the Old Port Royale Food Court, Shutters at Old Port Royale, Banana Cabana Pool Bar and
Calypso Trading Post will remain closed.

Please be assured that there will be a variety of dining options available to you for breakfast, lunch and
dinner. Centertown, a dining location, will serve a Caribbean-style buffet for breakfast and a la carte offerings
for dinner. A selection of grab-and-go meals will be conveniently available for purchase in three island
markets located in the Aruba, Jamaica and Martinique regions of the Resort. The in-room pizza delivery
service will remain available. Coca-Cola Freestyle machines will be available throughout the resort to refill
resort mugs.

Disney dining plans will be accepted for these offerings and all dining locations will offer menu options to meet
dietary needs.

Further to this. they're creating a new transportation system, Disney's Skyliner, which will give guests a bird's-
eye view of Walt Disney World Resort while traveling via gondolas.

This is what is posted on the disneyworld.com website. Disney is very careful not to give out specific dates. @dansdad have you seen anything published other than discussion forums with specific dates?

Pardon Our Pixie Dust
In an effort to make future visits even more magical, Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort is being reimagined!
Please note that noise will be heard while our Resort is undergoing refurbishments, but noise should not be heard from Guest rooms between dusk and 9:00 AM daily. We appreciate your patience and apologize for any inconvenience this work may cause.

Dining & Marketplace Closures
Beginning in May 2017, the following venues will be unavailable due to refurbishment: Old Port Royale Food Court, Shutters at Old Port Royale, Banana Cabana Pool Bar and Calypso Trading Post.

During this time, there will be a variety of dining options available to you for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Centertown, a dining location, will serve an all‐you‐care‐to‐enjoy buffet for breakfast and dinner, and à la carte options at lunch. A selection of grab‐and‐go meals will be conveniently available for purchase in 3 new island markets located in the Aruba, Jamaica and Martinique regions of the Resort. Additional à la carte offerings will be available at mobile food vending locations. Our in‐room dining will remain available. Disney dining plans will be accepted. We will make every effort to assist you with your dietary needs.

Arcade Closure
Goombay Games is currently closed for refurbishment.

For more information about refurbishments taking place at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, call (407) 939-1822. Guests in the United Kingdom may call 0800 028 0778, and Guests in Ireland may call 1800 812 678. Guests under 18 years of age must have parent or guardian permission to call.

I guess there's a chance, but odds are no. It's the reason Disney does not announce dates and details until the project is well over halfway. And when they do they speak in general terms. Fall 2018, early 2019, etc.

DIS Veteran

This is great news! For the most part as a solo traveler I'd probably just use regular Uber or Lyft service, but there are some instances that the Minnie Vans would work out better. Will try it out for sure during my next trip with some of the discounts offered by my credit cards.

DIS Veteran

This is what is posted on the disneyworld.com website. Disney is very careful not to give out specific dates. @dansdad have you seen anything published other than discussion forums with specific dates?

Mouseketeer

We're at CBR right now. We're in Aruba 53, which appears to be the farthest building from... well... basically everything! It's not too bad for us. It's a walk to any bus stop. The Aruba and Jamaica stops are about equidistant distances away. After being scared of these being the last bus stops, the first two days, we walked across the island to one of the first bus stops. But, we discovered that in the mornings, separate busses serve the front stops and the back stops, so today, we had no issues getting picked up at the Aruba stop. We're still last at the end of the day. The construction has not been a problem, but we're park warriors, going to the parks in the morning, and not returning until park closure. Aruba 53 has been nice and quiet! Enjoying the stay!

Mouseketeer

We just came back from our 2nd visit to CBR (last one was just 13 months ago.). We were assigned to another Jamaica room 4519, and had a murphy bed, which was so special for DD.

We arrived at MCO DME pick-up area at 5:30PM. DME took us and other resorts guests from MCO. It took much longer than expected, given that we stopped at Pop and AoA. Check-in was smooth, I reminded CM that I am eligible for GC offer and she gave me an envelop. We received the correct amount and used the GC to pay some of the balance for the room.

Bell service was quite long, as there seems to be one or two bell guys working, and takes only 1 family at a time. We were hoping to go to Poly to watch MK firework, but we ended up going to BWV to watch Epcot fireworks. --> later, we found out that Epcot fireworks can be seen near the main pool as well. Oh boy.

Room was little weird as in we had a wine fridge, inside of the closet, which made closet space really small.
There were like 17 hangers, but we couldn't even use them all because we simply had no room to hang it.
The fridge made the closet little hot, so I didn't want to put some of my food/medicine in the closet.
Last time, the shower and toilet was in enclosed section with a door, but this time, it was not.
The room felt bigger than our last room without a murphy bed.

Being in Jamaica 45, a lot of times we'd get off at Old Port Royal and walked back home. It is a longer walk, but due to the construction, Jamaica seems like always second last stop, unlike last visit where Jamaica was one of the first stop, and we liked the Caribbean Cay.

We didn't experience major bus issues this time, but when we went to AK, others told us that they have been waiting for AK bus for 45 minutes, which was our exact experience last time we visited. Thankfully, our wait was about 15 minutes, and we all got to the bus stop at 8:50 for 9:00 opening.

The market only had small milks, not a 2-qrt ones. We had to buy 2 from other resort (luckly, we decided to go visit AKL that day), and had to bring it back. It was little annoying to carry milk around with Disney's bus system. At least, the weather was quite cold, so we didn't have to worry about it going bad too much.

We didn't really stayed in the resort except for the last day. We were able to hear construction, but wasn't too bothersome. Also, once we hit the pool, maybe because of the music, or they may have already called it a day, we didn't hear the construction from then on. We were at the pool from like 3:15 PM.

We didn't dine at the tent except last night. We ordered jerk chicken and it was fairly good. We walked over to the buffet side to see what's available, but was not impressed at all.

Service at CBR was very good. CMs went above and beyond, and made my almost 4-year old (just shy of 3 days on our last day) very very very special. She was so happy and we truly felt there were so many magical moments.

Housekeeping or mousekeeping service was mediocre. First day, when we came back to the room after BWV, we found out that there was so shampoo. Thankfully I had brought couple from home just in case, so we were okay.
The second time, there were no bath soap. Only the third time, we received everything.

Earning My Ears

parkbr Thanks for the details on your recent trip. I am curious about where the
dme drops you off and then you have to take another shuttle to your area of the resort? And then when you go back to the airport on dme how do you get back to the dme bus? Our flight leaves at 7:30am and I don’t think the internal buses even run that early. I’ve heard of someone scheduling a pick up service but I wasn’t sure if that’s what I need to do or what.
We arrive Saturday and leave Tuesday morning. My daughter is coughing a lot so that’s frustrating. I’m hoping This won’t turn into something worse. Sunday is 80% rain too! But we won’t let that stop us from having fun. We are only going to magic kingdom for 2 days and coming home.

DIS Veteran

parkbr Thanks for the details on your recent trip. I am curious about where the
dme drops you off and then you have to take another shuttle to your area of the resort? And then when you go back to the airport on dme how do you get back to the dme bus? Our flight leaves at 7:30am and I don’t think the internal buses even run that early. I’ve heard of someone scheduling a pick up service but I wasn’t sure if that’s what I need to do or what.
We arrive Saturday and leave Tuesday morning. My daughter is coughing a lot so that’s frustrating. I’m hoping This won’t turn into something worse. Sunday is 80% rain too! But we won’t let that stop us from having fun. We are only going to magic kingdom for 2 days and coming home.